Databases - Alphabetical List - Jewish Studies - Library Research Guides at Indiana University

This page lists a large number of databases that might be of interest to Jewish Studies researchers. The databases contain both primary and secondary sources, cover single topics or many topics, and may or may not require IUB authentication (indicated by a lock icon, versus a globe icon for open access). If you would prefer a more curated list, click on one of the other pages in this guide.

All Databases

ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials
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ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials is a combined index to journal articles, book reviews, and collections of essays in all fields of religion, biblical studies, world religions, church history, religious perspectives on social issues.
Coverage in the database begins in 1908, and there is indexing for some journal titles back into the nineteenth century. Full text is available for many electronic articles and book reviews in over 100 journals.
Online Responsa Project
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Collection of Jewish texts in Hebrew, covering over three thousand years of heritage and tradition.
Covers Responsa Literature - rabbinic case-law rulings which represent the historical-sociological milieu of real-life situations; the Bible, the Talmud and their principal commentaries; works about Jewish law and customs; codes of Jewish law, such as Maimonides' Mishneh Torah and the Shulchan Aruch with its principal commentaries; midrashim, Zohar, etc. Also includes the Entsiklopedyah Talmudit.

Blavatnik Archive
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Following an initial acquisition of 10,000 Judaica-themed postcards and 74 posters in 2005, the Archive has substantially expanded the thematic scope of its holdings, as well as the range of media types within its collections. Major additions were made through the Veteran Oral History Project (2006–2014), and through the 2014 acquisitions of 52,000 World War I postcards; 22,000 National Socialist Party ephemera; 5,000 World War II ephemera; and 1,300 Leningrad Siege postcards. Currently, the Archive’s holdings of nearly 113,000 items include video interviews, postcards, photographs, posters, drawings and illustrations, diaries, letters, official documents, leaflets, periodicals, and books.

Compact Memory
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German-Jewish periodicals published between 1806 and 1938

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls
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"The Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Project allow[s] users to examine and explore these most ancient manuscripts from Second Temple times at a level of detail never before possible. Developed in partnership with Google, the new website gives users access to searchable, fast-loading, high-resolution images of the scrolls, as well as short explanatory videos and background information on the texts and their history."
Digitale Sammlungen--Judaica (Frankfurt University Library)
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Includes the following collections, with material dating from the 16th-20th century: Sammlung Freimann, Judaica Frankfurt, Jiddische Drucke, Compact Memory, Hebräische Handschriften, Hebräische Inkunabeln, and Rothschild-Sammlung.

Encyclopaedia Judaica
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Authoritative reference resource for Jewish knowledge and life
Ethnic NewsWatch
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Articles from newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority, and native press in America; full text and searchable in English and Spanish
Ethnomusicology: Global Field Recordings
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Access to audio recordings, videos, field notebooks and journals documenting the musical traditions of different societies and cultures.
Includes recordings from Alaska to the Pacific Islands, West Africa to Indonesia, including religious music, secular music, celebrations and funerals. There are interviews with musicians, slides and photographs of field sites and photographs of instruments being played and in isolation.
Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Daily Reports
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FBIS Daily Reports issued by the U.S. Government. Translations of broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals, and government statements from nations around the world
The original mission of the FBIS was to monitor, record, transcribe and translate intercepted radio broadcasts from foreign governments, official news services, and clandestine broadcasts from occupied territories. Many of these materials are first-hand reports of events as they occurred. As such, the FBIS Daily Reports constitutes an archive of transcripts of foreign broadcasts and news.

FBIS Daily Reports is comprised of the reports from Middle East and [North] Africa (MEA), 1974-1987; Near East and South Asia (NES), 1987-1996; South Asia (SAS), 1980-1987; Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), 1974-1980 and (AFR), 1987-1996; China (CHI), 1974-1996; Asia and the Pacific (APA), 1974-1987; East Asia (EAS), 1987-1996; Latin America (LAT and LAM), 1974-1996; Eastern Europe (EEU), 1974-1996; Soviet Union/Central Eurasia (SOV), 1974-1996; Western Europe (WEU), 1974-1996.

The IUB Libraries' Government Information, Maps and Microform Services (East Tower 2, or ET2), located on the 2nd floor of the Herman B Wells Library at 10th and Jordan, received these reports as part of the Federal Depository Library Program on microfiche. Feel free to contact ET2 staff regarding reports not yet available on this full text database, for earlier and later reports, and about related federal documents (including Congressional and Department of State documents).
German Anti-Semitic Propaganda, 1909-1941
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Digital access to 170 German-language titles of books and pamphlets. The collection presents anti-Semitism as an issue in politics, economics, religion, and education.
Most of the writings date from the 1920s and 1930s and many are directly connected with Nazi groups. The works are principally anti-Semitic, but include writings on other groups as well, including Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Jesuits, and the Freemasons. Also included are history, pseudo-history, and fiction.
Historical Abstracts
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Index to journals, chapters and theses about world history, 1450 to present.
Covers modern world history (excluding the United States and Canada which are covered in the database America: History and Life) from 1450 to the present. It currently indexes about 2,300 journals in 40 languages, with indexing also for some books and dissertations. Most of the article citations include abstracts of 75-100 words.
Holocaust Encyclopedia
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An encyclopedia with extra features concerning the Holocaust and the principal figures involved.
The Holocaust Encyclopedia includes items on all aspects of the Holocaust and the central figures involved in the Nazi attempt to annihilate the Jewish population of Europe. In addition to the searchable entries of the Encyclopedia itself, the site, sponsored by the National Holocaust Museum, includes historical films, photographs,lists of book titles and scholarly journals, and guides to archival resources, among them a guide to oral histories. There are additional materials, such as a search of identity numbers, with biographies, and resources for the study of genocide in general.
Index to Jewish Periodicals
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Jewish history, activity and thought.
The Index to Jewish Periodicals provides indexing to English-language articles, book reviews, and feature stories in more than 160 journals devoted to Jewish affairs. Titles include such journals as Contemporary Jewry, Holy Land Studies, Jewish Culture & History, Journal of Palestine Studies, Studies in American Jewish Literature. Most references in the Index are not found in other guides to periodical literature. The database is intended for those interested in Jewish thought and contemporary Jewish and Middle Eastern affairs. Coverage of journals dates as far back as 1988.

Index to Yiddish Periodicals
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The “Index to Yiddish Periodicals” is a bibliographical data base using Yiddish, which aims to record the materials published in the Yiddish press.
This ongoing bibliographical project is carried out under the auspices of the Yiddish Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in cooperation with the Jewish National and University Library.

This bibliographical data base includes all signed materials, whether they carry the real name of their author or a pseudonym. It doesn’t register unsigned news or articles, except when these deal with issues related to Yiddish literature and culture.
Israel's Foreign Policy - Historical Documents
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This collection of documents is intended to provide readers with first-hand knowledge of basic documents on Israel's foreign relations since the pre-state period (1947).

Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954
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Covers the history of Jewish communities in America from the arrival of the first Jewish people in the 17th century right through to the mid-20th century.
Includes access to the entirety of six major organisational collections and twenty-four collections of personal papers from the American Jewish Historical Society in New York. Themes covered include: business, industry and enterprise; civil rights and liberties; culture, literature and the arts; early Jewish experience; everyday life: personal and family narratives; immigration and settlement; politics and the law; reflections on the Jewish experience; religion, tradition and community; war, conflict and persecution; and Welfare, health and education.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency Archive
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Full-text JTA articles since 1923.

https://libraries.indiana.edu/databases/airelations
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Searchable, primary documents on the politics, administration, wars, and diplomacy of Palestine, the Independence of Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Fully searchable database of primary source documents from the British National Archives that chronicle the politics, wars, administration, and diplomacy surrounding the Palestine Mandate and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Topics covered include the background to the establishment of the State of Israel, Black September, the Border wars of the 1950s, the British capture of Jerusalem, the Cold War in the Middle East, the formation of the United Arab Republic, Jewish terror groups, and milestones in the Palestine-Zionist tension and their impact on British policy leading to the Partition of 1948.
North American Immigrant Letters, Diaries, and Oral Histories
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Full text of letters, diaries, autobiographies, and oral histories of immigrants to America and Canada. Covers 1840 to present, but heaviest focus is on 1920-1980.
Old Testament Abstracts
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Indexing and abstracts for religion and theology journal articles, monographs, multi-author works and software related to Old Testament studies. All abstracts are in English, regardless of the language of the original work.
Online Egyptological Bibliography (OEB)
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Bibliography of references in Egyptological literature. Includes the records and abstracts from Annual Egyptological Bibliography (AEB, 1947-2001), combined with Bibliographie Altägypten (BA, 1822-1946), the Aigyptos database with keywords, and more than 50,000 further items.
Otzar Online
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PLEASE NOTE: users need to select "Enter 'Otzar Online" to access. Collection of thousands of searchable full-text titles in a wide range of fields of Judaic studies.
Topics include: the Bible and its Commentaries, Tannaitic literature including Mishnah, Tosefta, Midrash Halakhah and Aggadah as well as their Commentaries,Talmudic literature from both Babylonian and Jerusalem Talmuds and their Commentaries, as well as Geonic works, Halakhah and Customs from the Rishonim and Acharonim, as well as Responsa Literature, Jewish Philosophy from medieval times to the modern period, Kabbalah and Hasidism including liturgical writings, sermons. Also includes modern scholarship in Jewish history, Hebrew linguistics, Jewish psychology, family studies, information science, etc., in addition to Torah compilations, memorial volumes, and prayer books.
Oxford Bibliographies Online: Jewish Studies
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An extensive bibliography compiled by scholars in Jewish Studies and related fields.
Philosopher's Index
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A bibliographic database with abstracts covering scholarly research in philosophy since 1940. Cites works in English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
Post-War Europe: Refugees, Exile and Resettlement, 1945-1950
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An archive of primary source documents, covering the repatriation and emigration of the Displaced Persons and survivors of the Holocaust and World War II.
Files include original reports on orphans and Unaccompanied Children Under UNRRA Care, Voluntary Societies British Zone Monthly Reports, 1949-, Welfare Work Amongst Jewish Prison Inmates, DPs in Assembly Stations, 1950, Displaced persons and prisoners of war to and from Italy, Complaints about Russian refugees and displaced persons (DPs); allegations of mistreatment of Soviet nationals, and Repatriation and disposal of prisoners of war, surrendered personnel, displaced persons etc.
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global This link opens in a new window
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Comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, including millions of works from thousands of universities. Each dissertation published since July, 1980 includes a 350-word abstract written by the author. Master's theses published since 1988 include 150-word abstracts. Simple bibliographic citations are available for dissertations dating from 1637.
Includes the following:

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: UK & Ireland
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: A & I
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses: CIC Institutions
RAMBI Index of Articles on Jewish Studies
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Selective bibliography of academic articles covering all of the fields of Jewish studies as well as the study of Eretz Israel and the State of Israel. RAMBI is based largely on the collections of the National Library of Israel. Includes references to articles in Hebrew, Latin, or Cyrillic letters.
Sol and Evelyn Henkind Talmud Text Databank
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Original documents of the Babylonian Talmud.
This database, which previously was available only through the purchase of a CD, consists of an extraordinary collection of virtually all original documents of the Babylonian Talmud. Such documents include all full surviving manuscripts of Oriental, Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Yemenite provenance; hundreds of complete manuscripts and first printed editions of the Babylonian Talmud; and more than a thousand fragments from the Cairo and European archives. Many of these documents are available both as texts and digital images. -- OCLC
Testaments to the Holocaust : Documents and Rare Printed Materials from the Wiener Library, London
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Digital access to the archives of the Wiener Library, London, the first archive to collect evidence of the Holocaust and the anti-semitic activities of the German Nazi Party.
Includes documentary evidence collected in several different programmes: the eyewitness accounts which were collected before, during and after the Second World War, from people fleeing the Nazi oppression, a large collection of photographs of pre-war Jewish life, the activities of the Nazis, and the ghettoes and camps, a collection of postcards of synagogues in Germany and eastern Europe, most since destroyed, a unique collection of Nazi propaganda publications including a large collection of 'educational' children's' books, and the card index of biographical details of prominent figures in Nazi Germany, many with portrait photographs. Pamphlets, bulletins and journals published by the Wiener Library to record and disseminate the research of the Institute are also included.
U.S. relations with the Vatican and the Holocaust, 1940-1950
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Digital access to correspondence, reports and analyses, memos of conversations, and personal interviews exploring such themes as U.S.-Vatican relations, Vatican’s role in World War II, Jewish refugees, Italian anti-Jewish laws during the papacy of Pius XII, and the pope’s personal knowledge of the treatment of European Jews.
Includes materials on political affairs, Jewish people, refugee and relief activities, German-owned property in Rome, property rights, and the Vatican Bank. In addition, there are materials on Axis diplomats, war criminals, protocols and religious statements, and records of the peace efforts of the Vatican.
Yiddish Literature
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About 800 valuable Yiddish books, printed in Hebrew letters, from the Frankfurt University Library.
The texts were printed in Hebrew letters in West, Central and East Europe. The dates range from the middle of the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century. The collection contains the whole spectrum of Yiddish texts, including a large number of women's bibles (Tse'na Re'ena), liturgy, medical guide books, science and education, works on religious customs (Minhagim), legends, historical chronicles and translations of well known tales like "A Thousand and one Nights".

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